Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, Book 2)

I rate this more highly as an adult reading this, for a YA book, the tension and mild horror elements are very well done and it introduces a lot of future elements in some nice subtle ways.

It's short and still nips on quicker than I'd like for the cosy elements - the day to day life in the school, lessons, social life in the common room and quidditch, but I understand it's a book for younger readers who aren't so jaded in life that they long for a simple life of wizardry

Good book. Too bad the author is a bigot.

when is it a good time to re-read harry potter?
always.
only this time i'm reading along to fry's oh-so-perfect narration. my love for this man is multiplying manifold!

Upon my Harry Potter reread this month, I was most excited to reread Chamber of Secrets, because I remember having such fond memories of this book as a child. Piecing together the clues along with Harry and his friends, the mystery of the castle, wondering whether or not Harry was the heir of Slytherin - all the small fragments that put the whole picture together always amazed me. So when I did reread Rowling’s bestselling book, I was not disappointed. Like each book in the series, the story starts just before term time, with Harry being abused and neglected by his only living relatives. Only this time, a house elf by the name of Dobby arrives, warning Harry of a terrible danger and a plot against him. Despite this warning, Harry still ends up going to Hogwarts, despite all the things that end up going wrong. Students become petrified and the survivors are left wondering what could have caused such an event. Harry, Ron and Hermione make it their mission to solve the mystery, which they are thankfully, successful in doing. While the Philosopher’s Stone is a good book, and always will be, it seems that the Chamber of Secrets took the best of its ancestor, and made it even better. The overarching problem for Harry and his friends to solve works so much better in this storyline, when everyone is established into their world, and we are merely learning more about the wizarding world, through Harry’s perspective. Not to be that person who compares the books to their film counterparts, but I had forgotten how much personality each character had in this book. Every character has their own feelings and hopes and reasons for committing their actions. While they are nowhere near developed like Harry and the other main characters, they are after all secondary characters, so the fact that they have so much personality and agency is outstanding at all. Some characters lack the development you would hope for such a highly praised novel, but this can be forgiven when you take into consideration that this is book two of seven, and character development happens throughout the series, not just one book. Baring in mind, that this is a story written for children, there are some quite powerful messages and morals, even for adults. If you are to read into every unjust action taken in the book, then you could make for some very compelling arguments about prejudice and the impact it can have on its victims. This book is definitely one of my personal favourites in the series.

Love